"Is this ability continuous?" Firefly pressed. "If the source powering it is destroyed, how long will it last?"
"No, are you out of your mind?" Moriya Shushei's lip twitched, his face twisting with impatience. "Fine then! I was going to let you die painlessly, without even realizing it. But now, prepare to face true terror!"
As he spoke, a colossal white bone arm emerged from the swirling vortex behind him, dwarfing even the patrolling Giant from earlier. The moment it appeared, it nearly filled the entire corridor of the school building.
As the arm slowly extended outward, it inevitably collided with the walls on either side.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Wherever the bone arm scraped, the walls crumbled like tofu, shattering with deafening crashes.
In the next instant, the swarm of White Specters that had been surging toward Firefly scattered in panic. Some phased through walls or ceilings to vanish completely, while others flattened themselves against the floor.
These were just ordinary, low-level monsters, barely sentient, yet Firefly sensed a chilling dread emanating from the White Specters.
The severed bone arm itself held no such dread for Firefly. In fact, she found it rather beautiful, lacking the macabre feel of skeletal remains. Its pale forearm resembled polished jade rather than bone.
But that wasn't the main issue. Firefly's Lightsaber vanished, and her Transformation Device reverted to its initial state.
Moments ago, she had been strategizing how to win this fight. Perhaps her only option was to charge forward at lightning speed and decapitate the Sakura Nation man. Eliminating him would sever the connection binding these summoned Ghosts to the mortal realm, leaving them without an anchor.
Executing such a maneuver would be exceedingly difficult for Firefly in her current state. However, Moriya Shushei's Mental Stripping ability had unexpectedly turned the tide. With her teammates temporarily unconscious, only she and the Sakura Nation man remained conscious on the battlefield. Didn't that mean...
"Haha! What's this? Giving up already?!" Moriya Shushei's lips curled into a wide grin as he watched Firefly's movements. "Foolish Dragon Nation people! Repent for your sins before you die! Did you really think the Martyr's demise here would remain a secret?"
"This isn't over yet! This retaliation is just the beginning!"
"Have you finished your monologue? Is it my turn now?" Firefly deactivated her Lightsaber, but not in surrender as Moriya imagined. Instead, her expression turned solemn as she held her Transformation Device horizontally against her chest.
This is a rare opportunity to transform in front of others without revealing my identity afterward! Time to savor this moment with a proper transformation sequence!
"Like fyreflies to a flame... life begets death!" As she spoke, Firefly raised the device above her head, sparks dancing around her.
"Live to fight, fight to live!" The instant her words ended, the flames erupted violently, engulfing her entire body in a searing inferno.
A moment later, as the flames dissipated, the silver-haired girl had vanished, replaced by an exceptionally handsome mecha: SAM.
Moriya Shushei could only stammer, "Ah... Ah???"
Understandably, Moriya Shushei was utterly stunned by witnessing a beautiful girl suddenly transform into a ball of fire and then morph into a mecha. His mouth hung slightly agape as he froze in place, completely bewildered.
No way... this is too absurd! Who wouldn't be dumbfounded by this?!
As a citizen of the Sakura Nation, Moriya Shushei hadn't fully grasped the meaning of Firefly's earlier declaration, though he could sense its rhythmic quality. But that wasn't the point. The point was... he knew about SAM!
Or rather, SAM had been flying around the world recently, making headlines everywhere. It was practically impossible not to know about him!
While the entire world speculated about the identity of SAM's pilot, Moriya Shushei never imagined he might be the first to uncover the truth.
Not some muscular behemoth, nor some broodingly handsome guy—the pilot inside SAM was actually a cute, silver-haired girl?!
Moriya Shushei finally understood the meaning behind Firefly's earlier words. He realized that while she seemed desperate to conceal her identity as SAM, she had transformed right in front of him. This meant that in her mind, he was already marked for death.
Only the dead can keep secrets.
In the next instant, every hair on Moriya Shushei's body stood on end as an overwhelming sense of danger surged through him.
"Damn it! So what if you're SAM? What's so special about SAM?!" Moriya shouted, his face now a far cry from his earlier arrogance and bravado. With a roar, the massive bone arm lunged straight toward Firefly.
"Action One, execute!"
Without dodging or flinching, Firefly charged directly at the skeletal limb. With a simple, brutal punch, she slammed her fist into the center of its palm.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion echoed through the corridor. The shockwave from their collision sent spiderweb-like cracks racing across the walls, ceiling, and floor, leaving a spiderweb of fractures in its wake.
However, contrary to Firefly's expectations, the bone proved far tougher than she had anticipated. She had thought she could shatter the arm with a single punch, but her blow left not even a scratch on the skeletal limb; it remained as pristine as when it had first been summoned.
Of course, this didn't mean her attack was entirely ineffective. The force of her punch caused the skeletal arm to tilt sideways, crashing into the already heavily cracked left wall and shattering it. As a result, Moriya Shushei, who had been hiding behind the skeletal arm, was now directly exposed to Firefly.
SAM's thrusters ignited, instantly closing the short distance. Moriya Shushei heard a deafening roar, his head still buzzing from the shock, when suddenly he felt an arm like an iron vise clamp down on his shoulder with crushing force.